Silent Asylum
by GRIMMKAMIKAZE
Summary: Andrew Young was sent to an Asylum to keep him safe from the hallucinations that haunted him. But a new patient will bring him him back to the place he dreads to see. He doesn't know what to call it besides... The Dark World...  PLEASE COMMENT!
1. Thoughts

I wonder what it's like outside this building. The only thing I ever see is the trees and the ravine. I can't see much to the side, only a bit of a parking lot to the left and another part of the grey-bricked building with more windows to the right. However, it's not as lonely as one would think, being in a mental hospital.

I have people to talk to. Every day at lunch I go to the cafeteria and talk to my friends. I have three friends, myself being the youngest, and I've known them for about two months now.

There's Nate, the dramatist who longs for the chance to be on Broadway. He was put here because of his stress that was so much it made him snap. It was in the middle of a drama class he was teaching too, he lashed out at a few "incompetent amateur actors" and put two of the students in the hospital. I bet he would be on Broadway if he hadn't buckled under the pressure of his life, which I still don't know what was stressful about it.

Joshua, the schemer who built a bomb in his basement, was so psychotic and dangerous that he was a threat to the other inmates of the prison he was put in. A few years after his meds and therapy finally took effect he calmed down. He doesn't have to wear a straight jacket anymore, or a muzzle thing, but the nurses and doctors still keep him under surveillance just in case.

Desmond murdered his wife when he came home and found her sleeping with another man. Obviously he killed the man too. He was so grief stricken that when the cops showed up they found him in the bathroom with his forearms sliced open with glass from the mirror still in the wound. Psychiatrists declared him to be mentally unstable and sent him here. He's not all that tough, though he is big; I like to think of him as a teddy bear. He let me see the scars on his arm and, one time, he let me touch them too.

I got put in here because I kept having delusions and made a big scene in the classroom when the delusions got really bad. My terrors usually always happen indoors. The room will get really dark and quiet, almost no noise within the whole room, and anyone in the room turns into motionless mannequins. If any of them do move, it's very blurry and creepy. The whole body will jerk and jive when they're moving towards me. They have no face, which makes it worse in my opinion, and they're always reaching out for me, trying to grab me and pull me away. They never get me though, I'm too fast for them, and I run out of the dark room and into another dark room with more mannequins. Just before they all surround me and topple over me, I snap out of it and the light and people come back to me. It scares everyone more than it scares me.

After the fifth time it happened at school, after going to see the counselor a few times, the principal asked my parents to get some help for me. Those people who examined me gave me some drugs to suppress the delusions. Those drugs did the trick but I was pretty much out of my senses when I was drugged up. The kids in the class would laugh at me because I would zone out and start drooling. I hated those pills but it was the only thing keeping me away from **that** place.

One time I missed a day because I ran out of pills and my parents forgot to get more. That day the delusions were so bad and so vivid it felt like I literally teleported to a different world.

I was in my bedroom when I tripped out. The whole room went pitch black; I couldn't see my bed or my window at all. It's like the whole room disappeared. Then the room came back, same shape of my bedroom, but the furniture and the walls were completely unnatural and scary. My bed was nothing but a rusty metal frame and a bloody mattress. My desk was rotting, covered in moss and other funky stuff, and had a big split in the middle. The walls were scratched and clawed down to the bare drywall. My walls were baby blue but now were white and smeared in muddy hand prints and bloody claw marks. My carpeted floor was still there but it was soaked and smelled like pee. The ceiling was the same condition as the walls but the ceiling had footprints on it too. The light bulb was lit, shining through a thin layer of dirt and grime, and cast a brownish light on the whole room.

Just before I could call out for anyone, the bedroom door opened wide. A mannequin drenched in blood from the top of its head down to its waist, and still trickling down, stood there. No movement. It had a brown paper bag in its grip, the bottom of the bag was wet and dripping. It wasn't blood; it looked like it was dropped in a shallow puddle on the road. Then the mannequin took a step forward, a blurred and quick movement, and then took another step, unfocused and fast. I backed away until I was up against the wall but it still approached me. With its free hand, it reached out towards me. I whimpered and slid to the floor. I tucked my legs in and covered my face, bracing for the worst. They had never gotten me before and now it was going to pull me away into some horrible place. I felt its grip on my shoulder...

"Andrew! Andrew, sweetie, it's me your mom! Andrew, look at me!" I slowly took my hands away from my face. There was my mom, kneeling down in front of me, with her usual look of worry on her face. My real room came back, furniture and everything, and sunlight shined through the blinds of my window. "Honey, I got your meds." She held the white Rx paper bag up to my face. "I'm sorry I didn't get them on time, I'll never forget again."

Unfortunately, two months later, she did forget. This time the bloody mannequin came at me with a knife when I was in the kitchen. I found a knife and retaliated. A moment after I slashed at the mannequin, I saw my mother on the ground with a large cut in her arm. Blood streamed out, she was wailing, and my dad was calling the hospital. It was then that they put me in the care of professional psychiatrists who admitted me to a mental ward.

My parents visit me every Friday, every week, and they're more than happy to see me. My mom forgave me for hurting her and she blames herself for forgetting my meds again. My one friend from school, Jimmy, brings me my school work because we have the same classes. He tells me all about the new games and consoles that are released and the new TV shows and the word around school about so-and-sos and what's-his-names. I miss school and I miss life as a pre-teen. I'm only 15 years old and I'm in an asylum! Jeez!

I don't know why, call it a hunch, but today in the cafeteria when I was talking to the guys I got the feeling that something was going to happen today. Well, more like someone happened.


	2. The New Girl

Today was a bit... scary, boring at first but then scary. Nate was going on about one of his favourite plays, _the Tempest_, and I wasn't interested. Joshua was taken back to his room because he punched a woman in the face. Not a word of explanation either. Desmond was at counselling; he had to tell the doctor about a dream he had. So I was alone with no one to talk to.

I went off to the rec room and set up the ping-pong board to play on my own. You can put up a wall so the ball always bounces back at you. I'm pretty good at it; none of my friends can beat me, not even my buddy from school.

I hit the timer on the side of the court, served the ball and I was immediately in the zone. The longest I've gone with one serve was 3:24, marked by a red clock hand. About two minutes in the watch on my arm beeped.

"Crap, my meds!" My medication was the only thing keeping the nightmare away, but I was so confident that I could beat my record.

"I'm gonna regret this." I groaned and kept tapping the tiny, plastic ball.

Moments later I quickly glance at the timer. 3 minutes and counting! Almost there!

2 minutes! So close now!

I glanced again; 1 minute!

Finally, I started to count down.

10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Time!

I super smashed the ball and watched it crash into the wall, rebound, and then bounce away. "Yes! I am the Champion ping-ponger!" I cheered and dashed for the doors to the cafeteria. I needed to take my meds, ASAP!

I pushed the door open and ran through the people, bobbing and weaving without slowing down. Reaching the doors on the other end of the large, crowded room, I charged into the doors... and rebounded off the door with a smack and fell on my ass with a thud.

"What the... Who locked the doors?" I got up and pushed the doors again. Yup, they were locked. I looked through the window on the door. No one was in the hallway and it was getting dark. The lights faded out; the ceiling lights and the sunlight from the windows. Seconds later, I was gazing into a black void on the other side of the door.

That's when I got the most dreadful feeling of certain doom. I quickly spun on my heel and pressed my back against the doors, watching the same fade out effect occur in the cafeteria. The people stopped talking or moving, the room became eerily silent; The transition had already begun. It was too late to regret my decision. My despair could not be worse as the room became pitch black. "No."

Weak, dim lights made an effort to light the large cafeteria, though it was pointless. All the people were now mannequins, all the food was spoiled (I could smell it), and the entire room had aged and transformed.

The windows were large industrial fans that circulated hot air, the tables and chairs were rotted wood, blood dripped upward from the cracks in the solid metal floor, and the two supporting pillars that held up the roof were decorated with mutilated corpses on various hooks with the size and purpose of catching sharks.

I kept as quiet as possible so the mannequins wouldn't hear me. Some of them twitched, it looked like they were trying to listen for any sound, but they didn't make any advance on me. Then I noticed something... no, someone!

She was sitting down at a table almost in the center of all the mannequins. She looked very calm where as I was petrified. She stood up straight, being careful not to scrape the chair on the ground. The mannequins didn't move an inch. Then she started tip-toeing around them, arching and bending to avoid grazing any of them. I didn't hear anything; any creaks or groans, she was doing a good job. She passed one of them and its head buzzed. I clenched my teeth, it looked like she did too, and I gasped.

"_Whoops!" _I thought, realizing my error. She and the two closest mannequins turned their heads in my direction. Slowly the two monsters stumbled towards me, their arms outstretched like zombies. My muscles seized, I was paralyzed in fear, and I could only wait for them to grab me and finally take me away forever. They got closer; I could smell flesh and blood on them, though they had no skin. A fingerless, mannequin hand reached out for my face...

Crash!

The mannequin behind the one closest to me falls forward and cracks its head on the door. The other mannequin turned to investigate and spun as a chair smashed it in the face. Amidst the noise and spurting blood, I instinctively lunged and shoved the standing mannequin. It tripped over its feet and fell to the ground, inches away from slicing its head open on the sharp corner of the nearby table.

The whole room became alive as the mannequins, jerking, buzzing, and creaking, all turned on me and shuffled their way through the crowd that was themselves. A hand grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me along; I did my best to stay upright and follow. I looked forward, away from the faceless people; it was the girl who tried to sneak by. She must have attacked those two mannequins too. She led me by the hand to another set of doors. She pushed it open and I followed her through. It was darker in this hallway she ran through with me in tow, I almost couldn't see her and I wondered how she knew where she was going.

Suddenly she hung a left and let go of my wrist. I couldn't stop so fast and I shuffled to a halt. I whipped around to see where she went. An open door with dim light pouring out and splashed against the wall; she must be in there.

I poked my head around the corner of the door frame and looked inside. It was a regular patient's room. Each room had two beds in the corners of the room, a desk at the end of each bed and one nightstand between the beds up against the window. The rules of a bedroom are only two people per room and no opposite gender habitation. That meant a guy and a girl couldn't sleep in the same room. I didn't have to share a room so I had no rules to worry about, besides the obvious 'no jumping on the beds'.

The girl was rummaging through the drawers on the desk with the lamp light on, searching frantically. What was she looking for? What could she possibly find?

"Can I help?" I asked in a sheepish tone. I actually didn't know what would be helpful for her but it's the thought that counts, right?

She stopped and turned her gaze on me. She had short, frazzled blonde hair and hard, green eyes. I had never seen green eyes on a person before but they suited her perfectly. She was wearing white hospital clothes, t-shirt, pants and slippers, just like anyone else in this building. She looked about my age, give or take a year, with a small frame. I kept my focus on her eyes, but I guessed her "figure" to be... average.

"You can shut yer face, for one thang." She had a southern accent with a high pitch. It reminded me of Miley Cyrus if she was a pixie. It wasn't really annoying, but her current tone was kind of frightening. "You just had to open yer yap didn't ya? I was so close to gettin' away too. I swear too gawd, if you get me killed, I-"

"Whoa, hold up!" I interrupted. I had to calm her down before she tore me a new one, because I had a feeling she was the kind of girl to do such a thing. "I'm sorry I messed you up, okay? I just got a little... nervous, that's all." A little self-blame always does the trick.

She leaned to one side and looked up and down me, sizing me up. She sighed and the fiery temper in her eyes dimmed. "A 'right, I'm sorry for gettin' mad at ya. This is the first time I ran into someone else here."

That caught my interest. "What a coincidence then. This is actually a first for me too. I always thought only I was having delusions like this."

"Delusions?" She looked a bit ticked off again. "I don't see any delusions here. Maybe you should take another gander around you, yeah?" She moved to the other desk and rummaged through it.

Now it was my turn to be annoyed. "I have looked around many times before, thank you, and this is a delusion."

She whirled around and glared at me. "Is that what the doc told ya? Is the doc always right about ya? How the hell would he know what's what, he doesn't see what ya see. Or can he do that too?" She turned away from me again.

"Okay then, how the hell do you know what's what either? You could be a new delusion of mine, and when I snap out of it, you'll be gone!"

A slap in the face and a punch to the gut later, she pinned me to the wall, her eyes ablaze with anger. "This. Ain't. No. Dream!" She hollered in my face. "This is real, those things are real, and I am real! Now wake up and smell the flowers!" She swung me around and I fell back on the bed. Immediately I sprung onto my feet and confronted her.

"I've been seeing things like this for two years; I should know what's real and what's not. I've seen **them** so many times I could give them names. I am so familiar with this world I've adapted to the choking rust and the blazing heat. I could live here if I was twisted in the head."

She smirked. "So you admit it. This ain't no delusion." She stated in a calmed manner.

"Well, no, I guess this isn't a delusion. More like a bad dream."

"This ain't no dream either. Even if it was, wouldn't ya be able to wake up any time?"

"Dreams don't work like that, especially bad ones." I stepped past her and looked out the bedroom door down the hall. Not a mannequin in sight.

"Look, I'm just sayin' that this ain't something you can just shrug off and forget about 'till next time. I'm sayin' this is somethin' worse than that." I turned and stared at her. She better not say what I think she's going to say. "What if this is real, ya know?"

I have just about had it with her. Physically beating me, I can let that go, but telling me something as ridiculous and psychotic as a nightmare being as real as... That's it; I'm throwing down the gloves (I played on a hockey team before I came here).

"Shut up." I snapped, catching her by surprise. "If you say that again I will let those mannequins tear you limb from limb or do whatever they have planned for you or me. This is not real and I'll prove it. Watch this." I ran out of the room and back down the hall towards the cafeteria.

"No, ya idiot, stop! Don' do that" I heard her yell after me, but I didn't even slow down. I ran right into the door and kept going. The cafeteria was empty, but I knew how to make it full again.

"Hey! Hey! Lookin' for me? I'm right here, come and get me! Yoo-hoo, stupid, come and get a free snack!" I kept yelling out, shouting swear words and insults to get anyone's attention. Then she tackled me to the ground and pressed both hands on my mouth.

"You're gonna get us both killed you damn idiot!" She hissed. "Do you want to die?"

"Wa wa wa wa wa." I responded. She took her hands off my mouth but kept them at the ready in case I yelled again. "I want to wake up."

She leaned closer to me, sitting on my chest, and whispered, "If you wanna wake up, you gotta live to see daylight. Understand?"

What the hell does that mean, "live"? Was this a game of man-hunt or survival or something like that? Was my life at stake?

She got off of me, stood up, and held out a hand. I slapped it away and got up myself. If this was a matter of survival, I wouldn't need her help. She would probably end up needing me to save her.

But then again, this was all just a dream... right?


	3. Deeper

The southern girl led me up to the second floor. She didn't say why we were going up there, matter of fact she didn't say anything to me since the argument in the cafeteria, but then again I didn't feel like talking to her either. Why is she such a butch? I thought girls were supposed to be proper and non-violent. She even walked like a guy too, how weird is that?

It was really quiet now, besides the occasional grinding of metal and gust of hot air. I jumped when I heard that sound, the grinding of metal, I felt like my stomach was going to fly out my throat. She just looked at me and smirked. God she is such a... you know.

There were no monsters in sight. I expected to run into at least one of those mannequins around a corner, or something scary like that, but no, not a thing besides her and me. Even so, I was still constantly checking around corners and peering over my shoulder, just in case.

She stopped in front of a rusty door and looked at it. I stood behind her and checked the door too. There was a number on the door, barely visible. I squinted in the dim light to see the number: 206 was the number.

She reached out and rubbed her fingers across the numbers. "There's somethin' in here." She spoke quietly. She may have been calmer than me but she didn't want to be loud either.

I raised an eyebrow and replied, "Yeah, that's the psychiatrist's room, so what?" A joke about her being crazy jumped into my head and I tried not to smile. Getting her mad again would not be fun.

She turned to me, her hand still on the door. "You don' feel it?"

That crazy joke came up again. "Feel what? Like a vibe, or something, you mean?"

"Yeah... a vibe..." She drifted off and looked back at the door again.

Now I was concerned. What if she's been in this place longer than I have and she finally lost her mind? Maybe that's why she's here. "Well if that's the case, go in." I challenged her.

She whipped her head around to look at me. "Do I look stupid to you?"

I thought about answering that but quickly changed my mind.

"I gotta bad vibe about this here room. I ain't gonna go in there." She stepped away from the door and held her hands to her body.

"Chicken." I muttered under my breath.

She glared at me. "Say that again and watch what happens."

"Yella'." I challenged in my fake, southern accent.

She went red in the face; I must've struck a nerve. "I ain't yella'!" She retaliated. "I just ain't crazy like the rest o' y'all."

"Oh, you're not crazy, then why are you here? I don't think I'm crazy, yet here I am. I wonder why we are here, **if** we're not crazy?" I felt an overwhelming sense of power in my words. She may be able to throw punches but she can't make clever comebacks like I can.

"Lord all mighty! You think every grown-up is right about you, don't ya? They don't know you!"

"Neither do you, now shut up!"

She pointed a finger at me like a knife. "I didn't have to save your hide back in the lunch room, ya keep that in mind!"

"I can take care of myself, **mom**!" I emphasized.

She looked about ready to deck me right in the mouth, with her forehead. "Why you... you..." She looked funny trying to think of something nasty to say, her eyes all wide, her face going pale and her finger still pointed at me

Before she could say anything, something squeezed my throat and slowly pulled me backwards. I reached for my neck and felt a wet, slimy rope. It squeezed and cut of my free air. I started choking and gargling, then my knees buckled and I fell to the floor. That's when I realized that she wasn't getting mad at me. She had seen the tentacle before I noticed it around my neck, she was horrified.

I struggled with the slippery tentacle as it dragged me across the floor towards its hiding spot in the darkness. I watched her snap out of her horror trance and act upon the situation, but I was blacking out... She reached for something... She ran for me... I stopped moving backwards... I was being pulled the other way by my feet... She pulled me into a room... A small light flickered on...

"Hey, are ya a' right?" She asked me.

I open my eyes fully. She sat next to me on a chair, the nightstand light turned on and flickering. It looked like it was slowly dying, fading out. I reached for my neck and rubbed the tender, irritated skin. It felt wet and clammy like I was sweating but I wasn't. "What was that thing that got me?" I asked.

"I just call it a 'Choker'. They're a sneaky kind o' freak. I haven't seen what it looks like yet, but I saw it catch one of those mannequins and drag it into the ceiling." She shuddered. "Then I heard eating sounds... Gawd..."

"Okay..." I responded awkwardly. Obviously she does know this place better than I do. She knows the monsters and how they behave. How messed up is she in the head?

"Y'all stay right here, I'm gonna go get somethin' real fast-like, okay?"

Something about what she said cheered me up a bit; must be her accent. "Yeah, sure, go ahead." I replied, not giving a second thought.

She got up off the chair and crept to the door. She poked her head out, looking both ways, and creeped through the small gap. She slowly shut the squeaky door, clicking shut, and I was alone.

I stayed on the bed, not bothering to sit up either, feeling safe as long as my feet didn't touch the floor. Then I thought about the girl. My impression of her was an angry, violent hick who was suffering the same delusions as I was. She was so delusional that she accepted this place as reality. What a freaking nut job she is. I chuckled at the thought of her ditching me in a comedic manner as I was devoured by the darkness and its evil inhabitants. I bet she would do that, given the chance.

Time passed, I didn't know how much, but she didn't come back. Why exactly did she leave in the first place? She said she was going to get something but what? "I bet she ditched me." I muttered and my anger was on the brim of boiling my blood. "Or maybe she got hurt." My anger subsided at the thought of her being in pain or being trapped by monsters.

But hey, this was a dream, a delusion even. She wouldn't really get hurt, just like I wouldn't. Still, I felt I needed to check outside.

I sat up, swung my feet around and hopped off the bed. The mattress springs groaned as they were relieved of my light weight. I scuffed my feet across the floor and I reached the door. The reassurance of this whole experience not being real calmed my nerves but also made me a bit negligent about the delusional danger. Real or not, I still got hurt. The rusted door opened wide, squeaking on its hinges, and the dirty hallway welcomed me with a gust of hot air, stinging my eyes. After my recovery, I stepped into the hall and looked around. Nothing and no one was to be seen in the dim light. I felt both at ease and concerned about that, but I let the feeling slide. The psychiatrist's office was across the hall to my right and I noticed a pipe with blood on it. That must be what she used to get that Choker to let go of me. I stepped lightly towards the pipe and picked it up by the middle of it to avoid scraping it on the ground. My reassurance of this being a delusion was no longer reassuring, but the improvised weapon in my hand was. This place was still dangerous, I should've kept that thought in my head at all times.

Gripping the pipe by the un-bloody end with both hands, I crept back to the bedroom door and stood there at attention like a watch dog. I had to keep an eye out for that girl and I knew what I would use this pipe for if anything else came by. I imagined a hoard of mannequins coming for me and I was fighting them all of in an epic fashion. I smirked, but in my daydream I noticed something: The psychiatrist's room door was slightly ajar.

_"She didn't actually go in there, did she?" _ I thought. _"Oh no, I didn't think she would actually go in there when I dared her!"_ I shuffled to the psychiatrist's door, tightening my grip on the pipe. It was slightly open as I saw from a distance; she must have gone in there. My thoughts conflicted as I outstretched my open hand towards the door.

_"No, you idiot, don't do it! It's a trap!"_

"_But this isn't real, I won't get hurt."_

"_How do you know you won't, what about the Choker?"_

"_That was a delusion, it wasn't real."_

"_It felt real enough!" _

"_Whatever, I'm going in!" _

"_You are __**so **__going to regret that!"_

The room was in complete darkness. The light from the hall didn't even show beyond the edges of the door, like the darkness was eating the light. I wanted to turn back, run into the bedroom and curl up on the squeaky mattress but I was pulled in. No, more like... persuaded. My feet stepped in the room and kept walking as if they knew where they were going. My feet altered their course; I reached down to feel for anything my feet diverted. I felt hard leather; was it a foot stool? My fingers slid off the leather object as my feet continued, continuing a short ways and then coming to a halt. I reached down in front of me and felt leather again. My fingers explored the entire object; It felt like one of those things that patients lie down, the chair-couch things that you see in TV shows and movies. A futon? I felt the sense of comfort, felt the need to lie down on it, and I did just that. The leather was cold but it felt comfy, better than the squeaky mattress. My vision blured and I was drowned in fatigue. I watched the light from the hallway disappear as the door closed itself without any noise.

Well, I did feel sleepy, might as well take a nap. That girl will come find me if she's that concerned about me. She is such a mom.


	4. Over and Over

The only reason I woke up as because I felt a draft that gave me goose bumps. My eyes shot open and I nearly jumped off the chair I was laying down on. I was in my psychiatrist's office, Dr. Benson's office, for I recognized the placement of everything after being in here twice a week. I was in the long chair, the footstool and the psychiatrist's chair was on my left against the wall. The chair I was on was in the middle of the room. There was a bookshelf to my right filled with books that anyone would get bored of reading. The patients chair faced the door that was made of solid oak. All the psychiatrist's doors were made of wood; there were five offices in total. Behind me was the wooden desk that had many compartments and slots for documents, pencils, pens and such. Also, of course, the university degrees, awards, and pictures of old people were on the walls. Typical office, I guess.

The room was slightly dark but was slightly illuminated by the rising sun from the window above the desk. Then it hit me: I'm awake, the nightmare was over!

I heard the door click and the sound of rattling keys. Someone was coming in! I stood up and rushed for the door and waited for the door to open. I knew I was going to get in trouble for being in someone else's room except my own this early in the morning but I had to find Dr. Benson and tell him what happened to me.

The door opened and I squeezed through the gap in the door for freedom. I saw blue overalls, boots, and then a hand reach out and grab me by the collar of my t-shirt.

"Hey you, what were you doing in there?" The smooth voice asked, yanking me up to a standing position. I recognized the lanky man with styled glasses, blue eyes and scratchy stubble on his face. It was the janitor Eric. "You're supposed to be in your room."

"Eric!" I yelled, not in surprise but in haste. "Where's Doctor Benson, I have to talk to him now!" I tried to run past him but again he grabbed me and pulled me back.

"From what I hear, everyone was looking for you yesterday. We had to lock down the building in case you tried to escape. Most of the people who know you were sure that you wouldn't do such a thing but we had to do the lock down anyway. That freaked out a lot of the patients."

"Okay I'm sorry, I'll apologize to everyone later, but I have to talk to Doctor Benson now!" Another attempt of escape was denied.

"I'm not done yet, kid." I've never seen Eric get mad but right he sounded a bit annoyed at that time. "Some patients said the last time they saw you before the lock down was when you left the cafeteria. Where did you go?"

I remembered the girl I met when I crossed over… I mean… tripped out. "Did a girl go missing to?"

Eric looked puzzled. "A girl went missing? Where? When did this happen?"

"It was the same time I… disappeared. Were you looking for just me or did you notice anyone else missing?"

Eric scratched the stubble on his chin. "Nope… I don't think so. All we knew was that you vanished and we were all looking for you. I didn't know someone else ran off too. Do you know who she is?"

I froze in mid breath, realizing that I never asked that girl for a name. "I don't know her name, but I do know what she looks like."

"Better than nothing, I guess. Come on now, first you have to apologize to the staff for scaring us like that then I'll take you to see Doctor Benson."

Crap! I hate apologizing, especially to more than one person. It's not that I'm not honest and sincere it's just that people don't believe in sorry anymore. After my apology to the staff, I walked back to Dr. Benson's room with him not saying a word until we entered the room and the door shut behind him.

"Now then" Dr. Benson started, "I have a feeling that your disappearance may have something to do with your delusions. Tell me Andrew, where did you go this time?" He had a rough, husky voice for a psychologist but he always spoke calmly and never argued or raised his voice. I made a joke about him that his voice box might crumble if he yelled even once.

I thought about how to answer his question. Where did I go? It was different from the last time I tripped out, a lot different even. There were so many of those fabric looking mannequins this time, a new monster that almost killed me, and there was another person with me this time. "Well, where to begin Doctor Benson?" I replied in a quiet voice. I saw the doctor's patient, waiting face that assured me of no pressure or time limit and I relaxed. "It was in the cafeteria. Everything changed. The floor was dirty, the walls looked sharp and pointy, so did the two pillars in the room, and everyone in the room became mannequins again."

Dr. Benson scratched down notes as I spoke. The moment after I stopped talking he stopped writing, looking up from his notepad to meet my eyes. "Go on, I can keep up."

"But not everyone was, actually. One of them was normal."

He stopped after me. "That's new." He sounded interested, and I believed he was. "Who was this person? What did this person look like?"

I thought back and regurgitated my vivid memory. "I never got her name, but she had short, blonde hair and green eyes. Her eyes looked really weird but cool at the same time. She had a southern accent and spoke like she was born and raised in Texas." I chuckled

He chuckled as well. "What happened when you saw her?"

"She was trying to sneak by all the mannequins, but I made a noise and they all came at me. She saved my life right then. I would've died."

"Now remember Andrew," Dr. Benson cut in," These are delusions so you would not have really died, okay?"

"Yeah yeah, I know," I quickly replied, "but when I told her that she got really mad. She insisted that it was real and there was real danger. She scared me."

He scribbled some notes and then said, "People do find things to be scary when they are convinced that one way is true but then someone tells them otherwise. You believe what you want to, but from my stand point I would tell you that these delusions cannot physically harm you."

"_Physically harm me?" _That reminded me of the Choker that got me by the neck. I quickly reached up to my throat and felt the spot that was no longer painful. "But I did get hurt Doctor Benson, right here on my neck." I pointed out by rubbing the spot.

He leaned in closer to see my neck. "I don't see any scars or irritation. Remember, you didn't **really** get hurt." He checked his watch. "I'm sorry Andrew but we need to wrap this up, I have important business to attend to. Is there anything else you wanted to tell me, anything important or significant or different that happened?"

I decided to ask about the girl. "Is there a girl here that looks like the girl I saw, or was there?"

His eyes strayed and his bushy brow furrowed; that meant he was thinking. I could tell by his facial expressions what he was feeling or thinking and his facial hair, bushy eyebrows and thick beard, just made him look funny. "Not that I know of, no. Perhaps she is, or was, another doctor's patient. I can't go digging through patient documents for you but I can ask around and see what I can discover that way."

He checked his watch again and stood up immediately. "Okay now, we will end it here and pick things up next time." He ushered me out the door and said, "Have a good day." before shutting the door.

The nurse escorted me back to my room and said I should stay in there for a bit. I must've been grounded or something so I just did what I usually do when I got grounded by my parents: sleep it off.

I had a dream after I went under, and it wasn't pleasant in the least. I saw the girl from before, her blonde hair and green eyes were unmistakable. She was running towards me and then tripped. A Choker tentacle had got her by the ankle; it shot out of the darkness behind her and caught her. Then more tentacles came out and grabbed her legs. Her fingernails screeched across the floor and she screamed my name, pleading for help. All I did was stand there and wave goodbye to her with my bloody hand. She was pulled away into the darkness and her screams echoed and drifted into silence..

I awoke to the knocking at my door. I sat up and felt the drenched mattress underneath my soaked body. I felt like I was light as air and wet as a rain cloud. I checked the window to see that it was already dark. The clock said 10:29 PM to confirm.

The knocking sounded again and I scrambled out of my wet bed sheets, sweat dripping on the floor as I stumbled across the room. I could barely stand and my stomach wanted to fly out of my mouth. I slammed both hands on the door to support myself and I looked out the reinforced window on the door.

It was her! It was the girl from my... delusion. "Open the door." She whispered, glancing around. She must be sneaking around, trying to avoid other people, I guessed. My anger boiled my blood; I was going to chew her out the moment she got in my room.

I reached for the door handle and pulled away from the door. She slipped between the gap between the door and the wall and slammed the door behind her. My hand was still gripped to the door so I lurched forward and supported myself against it. My stomach flipped and I went cross-eyed. If I was going to puke I wanted to do it on her.

"Yer alive!" She hissed with an expression of joy on her face. "My gawd, I thought you got killed when I couldn't find you." Then her face got angry. "Where in the hell did you go off to, I told ya to stay in the room 'till I got back."

I attempted to speak with what felt like a mouth full of stomach fluids. "I... you... oh god!" I speed shuffled to the waste basket, fell to my knees and upchucked in it. My eyes were closed but I heard it all, and it didn't sound right. It sounded like a choking hose trying to shoot water out. I heaved again and this time I paid attention to the contents going in reverse across my tongue. I felt no chunks or any bits of food; it didn't even taste like food. I heaved a third time, still guessing what was coming out. Then I felt the girl's hand on my back. "What the..." She spoke in confusion. "Did you chug a two quart bottle or somethin'?"

What the hell did that mean? I opened my eyes, feeling a little better in my stomach, and looked at what came out of my mouth and into the basket. "What the fu...?"

Water. The bucket was halfway full of water. I had puked that much water into a waste basket that filled it halfway. "Did someone try and drown me!" I hollered.

"Shush yer mouth!" She hissed, clamping her hand over my wet mouth. I suddenly gagged and felt more water coming up my throat. I couldn't hold back so I just puked it out. Water pushed through her fingers into the basket like a filter but the kept a firm grip on my mouth. After that passed she let go off my face and shook her soggy hand furiously. "You ding-a-ling, what the hell's the matter with ya anyway?"

I stood up slowly. "What are you *burp* doing here?" That was definitely not flattering but I was too mad. "You aren't real."

She reached out and pinched my arm forcing a drawback reflex out of me. "You felt that, didn't ya?" She still looked angry but she smirked too. It was like an evil smile.

"That... that's not the point. You aren't supposed to be her... because... no one here knows who you are." I thought but answered before she could respond. "Are you new here?"

"I ain't new here; I've been here for two years now. I bet that's longer than you, isn't it?"

I heard a lot of attitude out of her so far but I wasn't going to put up with it any longer. "Then how come I've never seen you before? This hospital doesn't separate boys and girls except for the bedroom."

Then she got frustrated. "I ain't gonna play twenty questions with ya now, I came to get you outta here."

"You know what? I've had enough!" I was going to give her an earful and not hold back and I was not afraid of getting a knuckle sandwich. "Before you showed up I was all fine and dandy! I wasn't having delusions, I wasn't babbling like an idiot and I had people to talk to. But then **you** show up the one time I forget my meds and you ruined my trip-out routine!"

"A routine?" She looked confused and shocked at the same time. "What in the hell is wrong with you?"

"I have a plan every time I go on a trip, okay? I quietly sneak away, find a high spot, and stay there 'till it blows over. **You**, however, you show up that time and blow it!"

"I blew it? You were the one that made a noise!"

"But you shouldn't have been there in the first place! That's the whole god-damn point!"

Her hand flew and struck me across the face. "You watch yer-"

Without thinking, like an involuntary reaction, I back handed her. She stumbled backwards until she was up against the wall, her head facing off to the side. My blood was beyond boiling, more like vapor, my heart pounded in my ears, my body tensed and flexed and I saw red. But my anger disappeared as fast as it came when I saw her face.

Her lip was split and bleeding. Her cheeks were rosy red and there was a faint mark of a hand on the cheek I hit. Her bangs covered her eyes, somewhat, but I still saw tears flow from those green eyes of hers.

"You… you hit me." She stammered, clearly in the biggest shock of her life. "You hit a girl."

Uh-oh, I am in so much trouble. "Oh, my god, I'm so sorry." I reached out for her but she squirmed away and made a break for the door. I tried to stop her but she got away. The sick feeling pounded me so I couldn't chase her.

"You can burn in hell for all I care!" She screamed as she ran down the hall and vanished around a corner. The moment she was out of my sight, every light in the hallway went out at once; the back up lights didn't go on like they were supposed to though.

No, not now, anytime but now! She was out there instead of being in a room where she would be safe! It was my fault she ran away! I had to save her!

The bedroom lights lit the floor and opposite walls as I ran after her. My stomach flopped all around but I ignored it. My focus was on her. I saw the corner in the hallway she turned into; I made a hard right, that's where she went.

"Wait! Come back! You're gonna get hurt!" I called out in hopes of slowing her down. But I couldn't even see her or hear her running. I felt like I was chasing a ghost.

I saw a reception desk when I turned another corner to my left. Nancy would be there, if she saw that girl that ran by she would tell me. Nancy was a fairly big woman, an African woman, who's been here for five years. She would know who the girl is because she's been here longer than the girl has. That, and she's good with young people and never forgets a face.

I ran up to the reception desk, "Nancy! Did you see a-", and immediately backed away. The woman staring at me was not Nancy. The **thing** staring at me was not Nancy. I was looking at a nurse with a bloodied, old style uniform and gauze wrapped around her head. Her head buzzed for a second and then the nurse lunged at me, catching me off guard, reaching over the counter and grunting in her struggle. I tripped over my feet and fell hard on my butt, winding me so badly I couldn't get any air. She fell over the counter and face planted on the tiled floor. But her back end bended over her and I got a look at what was up her short cut uniform. The wind came back to me and I literally shrieked. All I saw was a lot of blood and something that did not look anatomically correct. _Things _were not in the right place or in one piece. I had the sudden urge to scratch my eyes out.

She jerked her head to look at me and then she proceeded to drag herself towards me, grunting and groaning all the way. I found my legs that disappeared and used them to get up and run away. "What the hell is happening?" I yelled out loud, hoping someone human would hear me and rescue me. But that wouldn't happen and I knew it wouldn't go as I hoped. All the lights went out at once and I was stuck in the transition again. I had enough. I didn't want to go through this anymore. I sat down cross legged and hung my head with my eyes closed. If this nightmare wanted me that badly it could come get me.

However, that was not the intentions of someone else and the nightmare was not done with me either.


End file.
